I suppose to be more accurate I should say that I’m blogging by the backlight of my laptop’s screen, but piling rocks by moonlight sounds much more idealistic. Plus, I AM outside on our deck, at 10PM, with a cup of coffee, and everyone else in my household either in bed, in a stall, or out for the night. (And no, Erin is not the one in a stall.) And it’s not at all quiet. The bullfrogs are out. The peepers are out. Occasionally the sound of an unmufflered ATV drifts across the fields. And junebugs. They appear to have shown up early.

Nonetheless, here I am. Finally quiet. It’s been a busy, yet not so busy, week. So often I get lulled into this idea that I’m either succeeding or NOT succeeding based on how busy I am. So during a week like this week, I’d be utterly confused! I picked up a nice sized project for a client where loyalties go both ways, and have another project on the horizon that is so big in scope that it defies my imagination; yet my role in it is to scale it down to the point that it works for my client… and yet, it could still change the world. Literally. It really could. Don’t believe me? Just wait. 🙂 We also did some maintenance work for some other clients, and I accomplished some things on the home front, including another Thursday of quite a bit of time with my boy at the park and at Hardees (we now have to buy 3 breakfasts for the two of us), and a Friday night with both of my kids (Dukes of Hazzard and Frozen Pizza – YES!).

On the other hand, there were some lulls in this week. I’m a bit behind on some work with my business coach (although tonight has afforded me much progress), and it’s one of those hard to get started again types of things after a week of doing other things. There were a couple other downers as well, but in the end, here I sit. On a calm night, outside on the deck I close to love. With an hour of ME time. I’ve got a couple books I want to read, and a couple more I want to read after that. But before I start filling my mind and heart with other people’s thoughts, I’m letting out some of my own. Mainly just to mark this week, to book-end it, I guess.

I can’t change what’s brought me to today; but I take responsibility for what happens tomorrow.

That line is written above my home-office desk. I don’t notice it as much anymore, but I know it well now. What has brought me to where I am today has brought me here. I am where I am. And that’s a good place. Because it’s the launching place for tomorrow. As I look back over this week, I remember moments where I noticed that my heart was beating, where I noticed a smile, where I felt a hug, where I loved. And when I put all those other things – cold calls, unreturned calls, gained projects, lost projects, PB&J sandwiches, frozen pizza, and 3 mile runs that wear out my ankles – when I put those in perspective, it has been a great week. I can sit back and say that while I did not accomplish all that I perhaps set out to do, I did set out to do something, and I accomplished much of it, and them some.

God has a way of reminding me of these moments. Much of it is due to the way he’s taught me to finally get words off of my brain and down onto paper – or this blog – or my business planning notes… But He also has ways of reminding me in the moments that I stop to listen. When a song comes on that I’ve heard a million times before but am finally listening to, when the commentary to my daily Bible reading is interesting, and I take note of it, and then 4 hours later I get the “aha!” moment as to why God was poking me telling me to listen. I love those moments. I’m sure there are many I miss, but it’s less than I used to.

And you know what I love most? It’s spreading. Not because of me or necessarily even through me, but it’s spreading, nonetheless. People I know are listening. People I don’t know are listening. People are telling others to listen. It’s as if every once in a while, a large enough group of us stops, takes a breath, and breathes out slowly that we can actually hear, do, and accomplish something Great.

Well that’s enough typing for tonight. Back to the business planning – I think it’s time for the marketing and sales plan – which I really need at this point, as that’s the biggest area of “shooting in the dark” that I feel I’m working on right now. I can visualize my target, I can explain it to others, but actually getting out there and knocking on the right doors, at the right times, with the right approach; that’s the tough part of trial-and-error for me right now.

Oh yeah – had a couple books recommended to me this week. If you’ve read them I’d appreciate your thoughts… or maybe you’d like to check them out yourself.

Unfunded, by Nick Carter. Nick is in my local networking group, and now that I’ve heard a bit of his story, I want to pursue this.

Fail Up, by Tavis Smiley. I originally thought this was called “Falling Up,” but that seems to be a 15 year old children’s book; and this was supposably a new release. So maybe or maybe not this is the right book… not sure.

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